On 6^th of April 2023, a visit to the Meridian Port Services Ltd was part of the itinerary of the Vice-Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, H.E. Madam Hanneke Schuiling. The visit to Ghana was mainly focused on the renewal of the bilateral investment treaty between Ghana and The Kingdom of Netherlands. Also, visiting businesses that have received support from the Dutch Development Bank and other Dutch financial service providers was part of her activities in Ghana.

Accompanied by the Ambassador of Kingdom of Netherlands to Ghana, H.E. Mr. Jeroen Verheul, the visitors were received by the Chief Executive Officer of Meridian Port Services Ltd, Mr. Mohamed Samara, and Senior Management Team Mr. Curtiss Dakpogan-Chief Operations Officer and Mr. Thomas Bulow-Chief Finance Officer.

In a boardroom presentation, the CEO of MPS, Mr. Mohamed Samara underscored the Socio-economic impacts of the MPS shareholders’ investment in the Tema Port Expansion Project on Ghana. Recounting the gross value added from improving the Ghana’s “Liner Shipping Connectivity” which include increase Trade volume and Turnover from trade as well as employment within the trade and industry sectors etc. and in turn generate Gross Value Added and creation of jobs.

The CEO of MPS elaborates that “The necessity of this infrastructure for the economy of Ghana and by extension West Africa is huge as evidenced by the study done to assess the impact of the port on society. There is a huge market waiting to be served in this part of Africa, if you look at the demographics, should investors set up shops in manufacturing and industry, there is a lot of positive outlooks for such investments. This of course will be facilitated by transport infrastructure such as what we have done with MPS Terminal 3 at Tema Port.”

The MPS investment in Terminal 3 of Tema Port is set to boost the competitiveness and connectivity of Ghana’s Trade & Industry to the global markets; hence, it is Ghana’s industrial exports and agricultural that have high potentials for growth and the creation of most of the new jobs.

Comparing the digitalisation and technology deployment at MPS Terminal 3 to the Port of Rotterdam (the most sophisticated and technologically advanced large Port in Europe), H.E Hanneke Schuiling drew some similarities with the process of cargo flow.

“With what you have implemented at MPS, and what is being deployed at the Port of Rotterdam, I see some similarities in the way that containers are processed which is really impressive and very much needed for the effectiveness of the logistics chain and investors”.

Responding to a question by the Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Jeroen Verheul, on what role Ghana will play in the global economy for the next decade, Mr. Samara answered saying “there is high stake for Ghana and Africa in totality if the right enabling policies and processes are put in place to attract investors. The continent, and West Africa in particular, stands to be a massive economic zone soon with close to 400 million young producers and consumers growing to become half a billion soon”.

Following the boardroom session, the visiting team were taken on a tour of the Operations Department of MPS and subsequently to the quay side, where they witnessed the process of cargo discharge and load using the highly digitalised process.

MPS as part of its Corporate Social Initiatives for the future generation supports the Orange Corners Program, a Netherlands Embassy Initiative aimed at developing and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ghana. The program enables youth entrepreneurs to formalise their existing companies and provides them with the necessary opportunities, skills and access to markets and capital.